A Personal Diet Plan - Is it Realistic?

If you have tried a lot of diets, you realize that each one has good points, but they don't always take into account your personal weaknesses and strengths. Is it possible to develop a personal diet plan that fits who you are? You are not likely to buy a diet that is designed just for you, and, unless you can afford your own personal trainer, no one will make one for you. That doesn't mean you can't do it yourself. The key is to understand how diets work, as well as how your body works.

The most basic form of a diet is calorie counting. It is based on cutting the number of calories you consume (and at the same time developing an exercise program to burn off calories). The basic concept is sound, but people can have difficult if they have hit a plateau, or if they have trouble with the discipline (cravings are too strong), or if their genes are working against them.

So, a slightly different form of diet came into existence. A low carbohydrate diet says that most of your weight-gain calories are going to come from foods high in carbohydrates, so lets cut those out. Enjoy meats and other proteins, but cut out the carbohydrates. Again, this usually works, but for some people it is too difficult for the body to make that switch over from significant carbohydrates to almost none.

Another more recent type of diet is a calorie shifting diet. Its goal is to keep you from that plateau. The program plans a diet that shifts higher quantities of calories (a different types of food) from one day to another. The beauty of this type of diet is you get to eat all kinds of food, and it is not such an intense practice of counting calories. Yet, even this diet will level off for some people.

What you will need to do is develop a basic understanding of these three styles of dieting and take the freedom to develop the diet that works best for you. You will ultimately need to be aware of how much you are eating (either through calorie counting or carbohydrate watching. Use a note pad to keep track of everything you eat and what its values are. Compare that to your daily weight. Find what works the best over the long run.

Being rigid with a diet works until you have mastered it and understand what it is doing. After that, take what you have learned and make it your own. You can make a personal diet plan that works just for you. All you need is knowledge and experience to piece it together.

Read more about the three different diet styles at, squidoo.com/calorie-shift squidoo.com/calorie-shift.

If you are not familiar with a calorie shifting diet, you can get one here: [calorieshift.info/]